It’s not fake news: Washington is actually helping | Moran

Leaders of both political parties in Washington yesterday put aside their differences and acted decisively to help American families and businesses weather this crisis.

That’s not a sarcastic joke, or a dream sequence, and things could still fall apart. But on Wednesday the Senate announced a deal on a $2 trillion stimulus plan, the largest single spending bill in American history, one more than twice the size of the 2009 stimulus.

Even that $2 trillion might not be enough in the end. Because when a $22 trillion economy stops short, it takes a great heave to get it moving again, or even to soften the blow to the millions of businesses and families bearing the brunt of it. Unlike in 2009, when Republicans pressed the Obama administration to scale back its stimulus, both parties agreed this time on the need to go big.

So, for now, compromise is back in style. The prospect of 2 million Americans losing their lives in this pandemic, and many more losing their jobs, has had a sobering effect in Washington that one can only hope survives the moment.

The final deal also vindicates Democrats like Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, who fended off enormous pressure to yield to the urgency of the moment and forced Republicans to rewrite big portions of the bill.

Some of the changes they held out for were intended to fatten benefits for common people, like expanding eligibility for unemployment payments, and bolstering payments for four months so that they will actually replace earnings for most Americans. The bill would also provide emergency credit for small firms and forgive those loans if they agree to keep employees on the payroll through this crisis.

After both parties rejected a White House plan for a cut in the payroll tax, which would do nothing for those who have lost jobs in this crisis, both parties agreed instead to make $1,200 in direct payments to American adults, which would taper off as income rises, ending for those earning more than $100,000 a year, or $200,000 for a couple.

Perhaps the most memorable move Democrats made was to block the most shameless gambit by Republicans, the attempt to give Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin his own slush fund to play with, one he could use to directly subsidize President Trump’s personal businesses. That was the main sticking point in the final stages of negotiation.

The GOP bill set aside $500 billion to aid stressed industries, and even individual companies. The bulk would help the Federal Reserve to leverage loans for distressed companies, but $75 billion would be under Mnuchin’s control to bolster specific industries and companies, as he sees fit, without virtually no oversight, and no restrictions on providing help to Trump’s family business. Mnuchin wouldn’t even have to reveal the names of companies receiving help for six months.

It was Trumpism in its most raw form, and Schumer was right to make it a deal-breaker. Under the final agreement, Treasury will get the $500 billion, but spending will be overseen by an inspectors general and an oversight board. All transactions will be made public, and Trump’s personal business is disqualified, as are any personal businesses owned by members of Congress.

The agreement is more than 1,000 pages long, and packed full of painful compromises. No doubt, given the urgency, it contains mistakes that will have to be corrected in coming days and weeks. It calls for $100 billion in aid to hospitals, and no one on earth knows if that will be enough. It includes $150 billion for state and local governments, which New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo criticized as a fraction of what’s needed, and Gov. Phil Murphy described as “almost certainly” not enough.

This is not a final step, and America is still miles away from an effective public health response to this pandemic when measured against places like China and South Korea. Also, by Wednesday evening, bickering had broken out in the Senate as the parties tried to digest this massive bill.

But an agreement is close, if not certain. And this measure, flaws and all, is at least ambitious enough to meet the moment. Here’s hoping it’s not derailed by any last-minute snags.